Salvador Gutierrez, a native of El Salvador, said he has built a modest but prosperous life in Pasadena with the money he earns driving his Kenworth 18-wheel truck.

But his livelihood is threatened now, he said, by a recent decision by the Department of Public Safety to cancel the commercial driver's licenses of immigrants who lack certain immigration and travel documents - even though they are legally authorized to work in the U.S.

The controversy centers on a change to the Texas Transportation Code enacted in 2007 but only recently enforced by DPS, said Bianca Santorini, an attorney with Houston's America for All, an immigrant advocacy organization. Santorini said the change jeopardizes the commercial licenses of immigrants granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS - a kind of temporary reprieve from deportation for people from countries ravaged by natural disasters or destabilized by war.

DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said a change in the law in 2007 required all applicants for commercial driver licenses who are not U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, asylees or refugees to obtain a special, "nonresident" commercial driver license.

By law, applicants for the nonresident CDLs must present three specific documents - a passport, visa and an I-94 form issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers upon arrival to the United States, Mange said. But until recently, DPS did not enforce that specific paperwork requirement.

Mange estimated that about 1,800 "nonresident" CDLs have been issued in error since Sept. 1, 2007. Mange said everyone issued "nonresident" commercial licenses will be required to show DPS the specific documents - the passport, visa and I-94 form - during the next 90 days, or their licenses will be canceled.

But recipients of TPS are not issued those specific documents by the U.S. government, even though they are given paperwork showing they are legally authorized to work in the country.

Powerless to change

Mange conceded that TPS recipients are not issued the documents required by the code but said DPS is powerless to change it.

"The Legislature would have to change that," Mange said. "It's a law, not a rule.

For many of the truck drivers, including Gutierrez, losing their commercial licenses could mean losing their jobs.

"It's their whole livelihood," Santorini said. "They cannot work. Some of them own their own trucks or their own trucking companies.

"The most unfair thing is that there was no notice," she said. "They find out when they're driving that their licenses have been suspended."

Santorini said DPS could redraft the Texas Transportation Code to expand the list of acceptable documents to those issued to people with Temporary Protected Status. She said action by the Legislature is not required.

While the state and immigrant advocacy organizations try to figure out a resolution, truckers like Gutierrez said they are worried about losing their jobs.

Gutierrez was granted temporary legal status in 2002 after an earthquake hammered his native El Salvador. He was shocked to learn during a December traffic stop that the state had canceled his commercial driver's license in March. He said he never got a letter warning him that there was a problem.

"I said, 'No, I can't believe it,'" the 36-year-old said.

'A mess for me'

Gutierrez, who has lived in the United States for 22 years and has three U.S.-born children, said that if he's unable to resolve the license cancellation, he's not sure what he will do.

"It will be a mess for me. I have my house payment, my truck payment, my car payment, and my wife and my children to support. It's going to affect me a lot. I know that," he said. "And it's not just me. It's thousands of people. We are all in the same boat."